Stablecoins are the latest digital asset to grab headlines. Congress is considering legislation around the cryptocurrency, and a Trump family-affiliated company is preparing to launch its own Stablecoin. But does this digital currency live up to its own name?
Related episodes: What's this about a crypto reserve? (Apple / Spotify) Is 'government crypto' a good idea? (Apple / Spotify) WTF is a Bitcoin ETF? (Apple / Spotify)
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If you ever stay up at night scanning through frequencies on shortwave radio, there is a good chance you might come across something very odd and kind of creepy.
You will find a station that is nothing but a disembodied voice reading off a seemingly random string of numbers. There is often an identifying sound or song which is played on a regular basis before another recital of numbers.
These stations have no call signs or other identifying information, and no one has ever publicly claimed responsibility for them.
Learn more about numbers stations, what they are, and how they work on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
As the U.S. goes head-to-head with the rest of the world on tariffs, those countries are trying to figure out their best diplomatic strategy. One dilemma countries have is how close they get with another global superpower: China. On today's show, we hear from Pakistan's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb about how the country is balancing trade relations with both countries.
Related episodes: China's trade war perspective (Apple / Spotify) Dealmaker Don v. Tariff Man Trump (Apple / Spotify) Who's advising Trump on trade? (Apple / Spotify)
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In a Manhattan restaurant, the narrator of Audition meets a young man for lunch. Everyone has a different understanding of the pair's relationship, including the narrator herself. Katie Kitamura says she got the idea for the story after coming across a headline that said, "a stranger told me he was my son." That headline turned into the premise for her latest novel, which experiments with the idea of contradictions to destabilizing effect. In today's episode, Kitamura joins NPR's Ari Shapiro for a conversation about her decision to cut the book in half. They also discuss other media that's split into two parts – like the films Vertigo and Shoplifters – and Shapiro shares his interpretation of the novel.
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Known for books like Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry is the patron saint of millennial romance. But for her latest novel, the author says she wanted to challenge herself in a new way. Great Big Beautiful Life is a story within a story about two journalists who are competing to write the biography of a fictional media heiress. There's romance at the center of the novel, but the story also follows a century-long family drama. In today's episode, Henry speaks with NPR's Miles Parks about braiding these two plots together, her interest in mother-daughter relationships, and grief as the flipside of love.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
If you are listening to my words right now, then you are obviously an internet user.
The internet has arguably been the most transformative technology of the last fifty years.
But it wasn’t developed overnight or all at once. It was a gradual process to solve specific problems, and no one knew at the time that it would become the basis of a global network of computers.
Learn more about the origins of the Internet and how it was created on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
For weeks, Target has been the subject of a boycott after its decision to pull back on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. And early data shows it's taken a toll on the company. But in other instances, boycotts haven't made much of a splash. Today on the show, when does a boycott actually make a difference?
Related episodes: SPAM strikes back (Apple / Spotify)
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.